I was walking down the street near the Arcade when I saw a woman sat in the bus shelter and two Hathian Police Department officers stood over her. The woman had it seemed been racially profiled judging from the way the officers spoke to her, careful not to utter anything too offensive, but still making their feelings known about this woman. Seeing what was going on and this being my job, I took out my cell phone and started to record the incident, when one of the cops came over demanding to know what I was doing, so I made myself known by introducing myself and explained I worked for the Observer. At this point, the officer made it perfectly cleat what they thought of the press, and asked me to take a breath test because they claimed I was ‘under the influence’ because I was smoking.
My first mistake was that I refused. the way I saw it I had done nothing wrong except to try doing my job and exposing yet another example of the bully-boy tactics the HPD uses when dealing with innocent members of the public, and knowing in all likelihood the test would be falsified given my previous interactions with officers from the department. The officer became verbally oppressive, withdrawing his taser, and threatening to use it on me so I had no other choice to comply, kneel down, and put my hands behind my back to accept the arrest.
The officer hauled me off, and I was taken to HPD, where I found out that the cigar I had been smoking had cannabis in it, this comes as news to me as it was taken out of a packet bought at the local store and packaged by the company that makes them. I was also charged with possession of Cocaine, again this is something else that was planted on me, as again if you are carrying cocaine, it is something you wouldn’t simply forget, or maybe it was the imaginary cannabis the officer claimed I had in my smoke that made me forget? In addition, I was also charged I believe with helping the prisoner to escape or stopping the cops catching her, which is rubbish considering it was the cop that came over to me, handcuffed me, and not once did I stop him pursuing the woman, though I admit to being happy to hear she had escaped these corrupt cops.
My bail for a first offense on three bogus charges was $7,000 dollars, which I have on good advice makes me lucky considering others have been given more extortionate bail. Luckily someone was able to help me out, and a big thank you goes to Villia Vond, an information & security specialist, for assisting in speedily resolving this issue, and would recommend her quick and confidential service for others seeing a local Bonds Broker.
